Keeping Score
by secooper87
Summary: River knows why the Doctor really goes to museums.


Author's Note: Sorry, had to go all the way to LA for a memorial service, and Mozy Backup decided to give a bad update, so I couldn't access my files, which is why this is so late.

Good story, though.

I do try to stick to canon as much as possible, where I can. Canon says that the Doctor goes to museums to keep score, and I'm not contradicting that. Just expanding on it, a bit.

I think this story is really sweet.

Enjoy it.

* * *

"A... museum?" Rory asked, looking around himself, a little bewildered.

"And why not?" the Doctor cried, leaping from display case to display case, peering in. "Love museums. Splendid places! Oh!" He whirled around, pointing. "That was me. Remember that one."

Amy leaned into her fiancé, and whispered, "It's how he keeps score."

"Keeps score?" said Rory.

"And that one was me, too!" the Doctor added, grinning at another case. "Perseon 7. Omega cluster! 49th inning and the going was gold!"

He spun on his heels, then launched himself into the next room, looking around the display cases, his voice a steady ramble of times and places and people and events.

He stopped. Paused, beside one of the cases. Bent down, squinting at it, tapping his finger against the glass. "That _wasn't_ me," he muttered. Peered a little harder at it. "Force field interfaced with the heating system. Interesting..."

Amy and Rory exchanged a look. Then raced after him.

"Another message from River?" Amy guessed.

The Doctor looked up, jumping back up to his feet. "No. What? No! Well..." thoughtfully, "actually, maybe she could help."

"Who's River?" Rory whispered to Amy.

Amy crossed her arms. "I'm guessing wife."

The Doctor ignored their interaction, charging past them. "Back to the TARDIS!" he cried. "Lots to do and people to contact and things to check up on. Come along, Ponds!"

"I'm not a—" Rory protested.

But Amy dragged him along, anyways.

* * *

"So... we started in a museum," Rory clarified, "and now we're on an alien planet, digging through tunnels, on some mission... he won't explain."

"Typical," Amy muttered. She stood at the entrance to one of the caverns, and hollered out, "Hello!"

Listening to her voice echo through the chamber.

The Doctor snatched her back and shoved his hand over her mouth. The entire group of them remaining silent, letting the echo fade away into nothing.

Amy thought she could hear a few voices, in the distance, followed by the clatter of footsteps running away.

"You think she knows you're...?" River whispered.

"Definitely," the Doctor muttered. He grabbed up River, and dragged her after him. "Which means she'll never let me hear the end of this."

Then paused. Spun back around.

"Wait," the Doctor said. "How did you know...?"

"Why you really go to museums?" River winked at him. "It's how you keep score, sweetie. That wasn't hard to work out."

* * *

Amy and Rory were running off to talk to the Redukaro War Chief, while the Doctor and River were hunched over in the power room, disentangling and rewiring the devices to read exactly the right input settings...

They both jumped, as the hatch to the power room opened.

And in stepped a young woman with blue eyes and long brown hair, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. A young woman who stopped in the doorway.

"Oh," said Dawn Summers. "You guys are already doing it."

The Doctor turned, planting a surprised expression on his face. "Dawn Summers!" he cried. "Never expected to see you—"

"Yeah, you can cut the act, we both figured out you were here a while ago," Dawn told him. She shrugged. "I don't mind. But Seo's ready to read you the riot act."

The Doctor pretended to be affronted. "I had no idea she was here!" he insisted. "It's a complete coincidence. I'd never—!"

"Amy and Rory are taking care of the Redukaro War Chief," River cut in. "And I've just finished rerouting power into the warp core."

"Which are the two things Seo sent me to do," Dawn said. "So... I guess that's a great big check mark on the Dawn To Do List."

River finished making the last few connections. "What about you two?" she said. "Are you about done feeding the reverse trajectory through the space ship?"

"Seo said she was almost done with something technobabbly," Dawn replied. "I guess that's probably it." She leaned against the door-jam, crossing her arms, eyes falling back on the Doctor. "I am keeping an eye on her, myself, Doctor. You know that, right?"

"And doing a fine job of it!" the Doctor replied, turning back to his work. "This is just... nothing, really. Small amendment to that truly brilliant plan of hers. Nothing to worry about. Pretend I'm not here!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "You've gotta let her make her own mistakes, sometime," she said, heading out the door. "Give her a chance and you'll see. She's smarter than you think."

* * *

"Maybe Dawn's right," River told the Doctor, as they raced away from the building as fast as they could. "All children need a chance to grow up. Make their own mistakes. Learn their own- "

"Some mistakes don't give you the chance to grow up," the Doctor replied, under his breath.

River glanced over her shoulder, at the complex behind them. Cringed. "You mean they didn't know that activating conduit would cause...?"

The conversation ended, as Amy and Rory caught up to them, their breaths heaving as they continued to run. "What... what did...?" Amy panted.

"Long story short," the Doctor explained, "whole invading army is currently being tricked into twisting themselves outside reality, which would be marvelously clever and really rather brilliant, except for one teeny tiny mistake that got overlooked, which means that now, it's time for us to RUN!"

The Doctor grabbed up Amy, Rory, and River, speeding forwards even faster.

Then the building blew up, behind them. The force of the explosion throwing them to the ground.

The Doctor rolled onto his back. His face morphing into a wide grin, as he saw the force field bubble he'd constructed kicking into effect, in the midst of the debris. Holding two familiar figures inside it, unharmed and protected.

"Perfect," the Doctor said.

Amy squinted into the distance. Trying to make out the people inside. "Hey, Doctor," she said, elbowing him. "I think someone in that force bubble is shouting angrily at you."

"So she is!" the Doctor replied, getting back to his feet and dusting himself off. "Not my problem. Let's get going!"

* * *

Amy and Rory both stepped out of the TARDIS, and sighed as they saw what awaited them.

"Another museum?" Rory groaned.

"The same museum," Amy corrected. She ran after the Doctor, who'd already raced back to where he'd been, last time. "Doctor, couldn't we get a bite to eat? I'm starving."

The Doctor gestured off into the distance. "Food court's over there. Just don't eat too many Snozzleberries — they're disgusting."

Amy and Rory looked at one another.

Then ran off.

The Doctor just stayed, looking at the little item in the glass case, which had caught his interest before. That little force field he'd noticed, dated, corresponded with the TARDIS' information, and then headed off to create.

He rested his hand on the top of the glass.

"One point for me," he whispered, "and two for you." He grinned, then leaned in and whispered, "Can't wait to see what you get up to next."


End file.
